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With no end in sight to the partial government shutdown, and the possibility that 800,000 federal workers will miss another paycheck at the end of this week, the Trump Administration reported Monday that ‘unscheduled absences’ by TSA airport screeners hit 10 percent on Sunday, with that number jumping over the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, as security screeners continue to work without pay because of a battle between the President and Democrats in Congress over funding for a border wall. “TSA experienced a national rate of 10 percent of unscheduled absences compared to a 3.1 percent rate one year ago on the same weekday,” the Transportation Security Administration reported, again using the same language in a daily news release that “many employees are reporting that they are not able to report to work due to financial limitations.” The number of absent screeners had held around 6 percent much of last week, but the TSA reported the number of screeners not showing up for work as planned hit 7 percent on Friday, 8 percent on Saturday, and then 10 percent on Sunday. . @TSA says that 10 percent of its workforce had an 'unscheduled absence' Sunday, compared to just 3.1 percent on the same day last year; that means more than 3,000 TSA agents called off #GovernmentShutdown — Gabe Gutierrez (@gabegutierrez) January 21, 2019 The TSA said in a news release that ‘99.9 percent of passengers waited less than 30 minutes’ to go through airport screening on Sunday. But on Saturday, excessive sick calls by TSA airport screeners forced officials at Baltimore-Washington International Airport to use emergency plans to deal with the lack of airport screeners, closing a major security checkpoint early at the airport. That major checkpoint for Southwest Airlines flights wasn’t closed for just a few hours – but remained shut down on Sunday and Monday as well, because of a lack of security screeners. “It is important to clarify that it is not unusual for TSA and BWI Marshall to open or close one of our security checkpoints,” the airport said in a written statement. “This will have minimal, if any, impact on passengers and no impact on airport operations,” the BWI statement read. . @TSA in collaboration with airport authorities &amp; servicing airlines will be exercising a contingency plan at @BWI_Airport due to excessive callouts. Checkpoint A will be closing at 5:35pm. Passengers should arrive early for evening flights. Contact airport &amp; airlines for updates — TSA (@TSA) January 19, 2019 Earlier this month, press reports of airport screeners calling in sick because of the government shutdown – and the lack of pay for screeners – was denounced as ‘fake news’ by a top Department of Homeland Security spokesman, as well as the White House. Like other federal workers, TSA screeners have been coming to work since the partial government shutdown started on December 22; they were paid as scheduled on December 29, but missed a check on January 11, and a second check may not be paid on January 25.

A 9-year-old boy driving an all-terrain vehicle crashed over the weekend, killing a 58-year-old passenger in Osceola County, the Florida Highway Patrol said. >> Read more trending news Troopers said the boy was trying to avoid another ATV Saturday on 8 Mile Ranch Road when the vehicle he was operating hit a brim and overturned onto Laura Bizzell, of Avon Park. The boy suffered minor injuries, but Bizzell died, according to the FHP. The other ATV driver, Samuel Christmas, 53, suffered minor injuries. Authorities continue to investigate the incident.

Two people were injured Sunday night after a police car struck them as they lay in a Florida roadway, apparently to watch the lunar eclipse, according to multiple reports. >> Read more trending news The incident happened just before midnight Sunday near the Apoxee Trail, a 2.5-mile nature trail in West Palm Beach, according to WPBF and city officials. A police officer was patrolling the trail Sunday in a Ford Explorer when he struck a man and a woman, both 24, while traveling 5 mph, WPEC and WPBF reported. At the time, the area was extremely dark, according to officials. Police told WPBF that investigators believe the pair was lying in the road to photograph and watch the super blood wolf moon lunar eclipse. They were taken to a hospital with injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening, according to the news station. The officer who struck the pair, who was not identified, was placed on paid administrative leave as police investigate the incident, WPEC reported. Authorities continue to investigate.

Speaking at a commemoration of what would have been her father’s 90th birthday, Rev. Dr. Bernice King criticized the Trump administration Monday for misquoting her father’s works “to suit our own purposes.” >> Read more trending news King’s remarks were aimed at Trump’s border wall push and comments by Vice President Mike Pence, who during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, said: “One of my favorite quotes from Dr. King was ‘Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.” “You think of how he changed America. He inspired us to change through the legislative process to become a more perfect union,” Pence said on the show. “That’s exactly what President Trump is calling on the Congress to do. Come to the table in the spirit of good faith. We’ll secure our border, we’ll reopen the government and we’ll move our nation forward.” >> Reflecting on MLK: 'The baddest brother of the 20th century' On Monday, during remarks at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Bernice King said: “If we really want to make real the promises of democracy, now is the time on this King holiday to stop quoting King out of context and misquoting him to suit our own purposes.” The Ebenezer audience applauded warmly. Bernice King also called for action on problems facing the country, ranging from the partial government shutdown affecting federal workers’ livelihood to the resurgence of white supremacist ideologies and voter access problems. “We are in a state emergency because of our humanitarian crises, and it’s not at our southern border,” she said. “The concern for human welfare is being threatened.” “When prejudice and bigotry are emboldened…. when schools continue to be unsafe spaces because of impotent gun control laws…. this is a humanitarian crisis and we are in a state of emergency,” King said. >> Delta contributes grant funding to re-open MLK national park During remarks at the service, U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., called for reflection on King’s words, saying: “He often reminded us that what united us is far greater than what divides us.” The service came on the holiday weekend when the Martin Luther Jr. National Historical Park reopened to visitors after a closure due to the partial federal shutdown. The reopening was funded with the help of a $83,500 grant from Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines. Reopened for Martin Luther King Jr. weekend through the Super Bowl on Feb. 3, are the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church where King was co-pastor, the home where Martin Luther King Jr. was born, the park’s visitor center and historic Fire Station No. 6. “We ought to be concerned that the cradle of the civil rights movement is also the capital of income inequality in this country today,” said Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church.

A man was hospitalized Sunday after a police chase ended with him jumping off an overpass, according to officials. >> Read more trending news The incident started around 5 p.m. Sunday near 176th Street and Canyon Road in Spanaway when Pierce County deputies tried to stop a car that they say was being driven recklessly. Officials said the driver fled and police began a pursuit. During that time, the driver hit at least one vehicle, authorities said. The chase continued in the eastbound lanes of State Route 512 and onto the northbound lanes of State Route 167, where authorities said the suspect got caught up in traffic. Officials said the driver struck cars on an overpass. His car became so damaged it would no longer run, so he got out of the vehicle and jumped off the overpass, authorities said. Police said the driver fell at least 75 feet to the brush-covered ground below, near Valley Avenue East. Officials found him with multiple broken bones and a collapsed lung. He was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, where he underwent surgery, authorities said. The other people whose cars were hit suffered minor injuries, according to officials. Authorities said the suspect will face charges including eluding authorities and eight counts of hit-and-run. ﻿The Cox Media Group National Content Desk contributed to this report.

The Kavanaugh saga – as a story from our youth

Posted: 11:04 am Saturday, September 29th, 2018

By Jamie Dupree

While the saga of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has erupted into a major story around the country for many Americans, the battle has a slightly different ring to it for those of us who grew up in the same area as Kavanaugh, just outside of Washington, D.C., and that was very apparent as I met up with a group of my high school friends this weekend.

For almost the last twenty years, eight of us have gathered in various places around the country to tell the same stories, play a little golf, drink a few beers, play some cards, and remember one of our friends who left us too early many years ago.

I was supposed to arrive on Thursday to this year’s event, but instead I was in the hearing room for the Senate Judiciary Committee testimony by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Kavanaugh; then, the events of Friday further delayed me.

So, when I reached the front door, there was only one thing my old friends wanted to talk about.

And that was the Brett Kavanaugh nomination.

I've just sat down with seven guys that I went to high school with in the DC suburbs – what do you think the subject is

My buddies aren’t overtly political people, as they have spread their way around the nation, from Boston to New York, Denver, Florida and California. Only two of us are still left in the D.C. area. Partisan politics was not in their blood – but there were very aware of what was going on.

“It was kind of like the local industry,” my friend Art said about the political scene.

As a group, my friends still pay attention to the news, making this story all the most interesting to them, as we grew up not far from Kavanaugh and his friends in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C.

We are one and two years older than Kavanaugh, running around the same streets as the President’s Supreme Court nominee; we know all the names of the schools where Kavanaugh and his friends went, all the country clubs, and more.

In many ways, it’s a local story for us – not a Supreme Court story. One of the dads on my kid’s baseball team was a classmate and friend of Kavanaugh in high school. Another guy I know was friends with the Blasey family.

When the judge refers to churches named Little Flower or Blessed Sacrament, we know exactly what he is talking about.

What are some of the things that struck my group from Bethesda and Chevy Chase? For one, it’s a personal story. We know the players.

1. Kavanaugh setting out his social group to exclude Ford. We were public school kids, so we knew the names of the big private schools like Georgetown Prep and Holton Arms, where Kavanaugh and Ford went. In his testimony on Thursday, Kavanaugh very specifically carved out a private school arena that excluded Ford’s school, rattling off the names of a number of Catholic schools. “When my friends and I spent time together at parties on weekends, it was usually with friends from nearby Catholic all-girl high schools: Stone Ridge, Holy Child, Visitation, Immaculata, Holy Cross,” Kavanaugh said, referring to Ford’s school as an “independent private school.”

2. Ford though says her school socialized with Prep. While Kavanaugh was at Georgetown Prep, about two miles outside the Beltway, we went to school four miles to the south at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. Holton-Arms is a very small private all-girls school that was four miles to the west of our campus. It might sound a long ways away, but it’s all in the southern part of Montgomery County, Maryland where we lived. While none of us had too wide of a social group, the private schools were different, as they spanned much of the Washington area. While Kavanaugh characterized his social set as one which was focused on Catholic girls schools, in Maryland and Washington, D.C., Ford related a similar story, name-checking well-known boys schools in the suburbs like Landon and Georgetown Prep, but also Gonzaga on Capitol Hill.

3. Some political moments from the Judge. There were two things that struck my friends from the Kavanaugh testimony – other than the obvious one which quickly reached meme status of, “I like beer.” But on that subject of drinking, the Kavanaugh exchange with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) was something that immediately came up. Klobuchar’s father suffered from alcoholism, and so it was a somewhat stunning moment in the hearing room as I sat 15 feet from the judge, when he threw Klobuchar’s question about drinking right back at her, asking her if she had ever been blackout drunk. And it registered with my old friends as well.

4. “Revenge on behalf of the Clintons.” All of us know that Supreme Court nominees tilt one way or the other. That’s no secret. There is a reason that certain judges are picked by Presidents of one party or the other. We aren’t rookies at this thing called politics, as my friends grew up with a keen sense of what was going on at the White House and Capitol Hill. But it was obvious from their reviews of Thursday’s hearing that one piece of Kavanaugh’s opening statement had really left a mark, where he blamed some of the attacks and allegations as “revenge on behalf of the Clintons,” which evidently related to Kavanaugh’s time working for Ken Starr in the Monica Lewinsky/Whitewater investigation.

5. The mean streets of Bethesda and Chevy Chase. One thing my friends also talked about was previous testimony from Kavanaugh, when he discussed living in the ‘murder capital of the world,’ referring to the time when certain parts of Washington, D.C. were very violent. But that wasn’t our neck of the woods. There were no barricades at Chevy Chase Circle or Westmoreland Circle. When I came back to D.C. for high school in 1977, the urban areas of Washington were much like those I had experienced when living in the immediate suburbs of Chicago and Detroit – there were places which were not safe. There’s a sports radio talk show host in Washington who jokes about growing up on the ‘mean streets of McLean, Virginia,” which is just across the Potomac River from us, another upper income suburb of the nation’s capital. We were lucky as kids. We weren’t in danger.

6. The country clubs are also of note. Dr. Ford talked about how she met Kavanaugh through some common friends at Columbia Country Club, one of the three big clubs in our area, along with the Chevy Chase Club, and Congressional Country Club. The Blasey family were members at Columbia. Back in the 1980’s, the Kavanaughs were members at Congressional. Lots of amateur sleuths say that Kavanaugh would never have been at Columbia, but if you’re on the swim or dive teams in the summer – as Ford was – those three clubs gather for joint meets. The three clubs are in the same social circles. For the record – my family got into Congressional when Kavanaugh was there – my father knew Kavanaugh’s father from lobbying circles, and my sister interned in the same Congressional office in 1983 as Brett Kavanaugh. In 1998, I played golf with Kavanaugh and another lawyer, both of whom were working on the Ken Starr investigation at the time. They wouldn’t remember me, but my reporter mind certainly remembers them. Kavanaugh left Congressional in the last two years, and switched to the Chevy Chase Club, which is not far from his home.

Staff just handed out this map to reporters here in the room. It shows the locations of the Columbia country club plus Kavanaugh’s & Ford’s childhood homes. pic.twitter.com/gcULFXbXH0

7. Remembering the parties back in high school. The neighborhood in Chevy Chase where Dr. Ford says she attended a party with Kavanaugh and his friends is dead center in our home turf – and it’s where Judge Kavanaugh lives now. The kids on our streets went to both public and private schools. We were always on the edge of their world as well. Realistically, we were somewhat nerdy, but probably typical for high school kids. We did dumb stuff, but I wasn’t the kid who was running down the street when the cops showed up at a house where the big party was raging because the parents were gone for the weekend. One guy in our group left our public school route and ended up at Sidwell Friends, a well-known private school in D.C., but one that he felt like was a step below the Kavanaugh group. “I wished at the time that I could have been part of their social group,” my friend Bill said. “They seemed to be having more fun.” But the “BEACH WEEK” description on the calendar of Judge Kavanaugh certainly brought up a few stories that left some of my buddies shaking their heads.